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01/08/2019 at 1:56 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 393: Happy New Year and Returns Happen #54789
The annuity is worthwhile in my opinion – we’re also going to get one when we are your age (we’re in our mid-40’s) and we don’t have any children. It will give us a great peace of mind to know we have a guaranteed income until we are both deceased. If we don’t live long enough and the insurance/annuity company gets more money, so be it – it’s the gamble we’ll take and we’ll be dead anyways!
Collaboration is great – I’m going back to having just the square on the wall and I’m going to spin the box as you suggest. I had a ruler on the table for the other measurement, but it keeps getting in the way (even though it is as flat of a ruler as you can get).
I’m using a square that has stamped numbers/lines on it and I’m going to use a black market on it to make it easier to read, or see if I can scavenge one with easier to read measurements. Challenge I have is that I need to do my measurements in centimeters and even in Canada it is hard to find metric squares.
Still playing with my setup – once I have it tweaked (and the area clean – had a good sales week so far of oddball items) I’ll provide the promised photos of my setup.
01/08/2019 at 10:14 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 393: Happy New Year and Returns Happen #54767I’ve taken the opposite approach – having debt keeps me up at night and I don’t trust investments or the stock market to perform when I need it to. I rather have my house paid off, and just have to worry about monthly bills as they arrive and invest the rest. Having my house paid off gives me a super secure feeling that nobody can take it away from me if I can’t pay a mortgage.
Having one house paid for, and a mortgage on a second property (that will be paid off completely when I sell my first house) even has the “debt monkey” on my back some days and worries me.
I know people have different comfort levels with debt, and I’m one of those who can’t handle owing money to someone or the bank.
I’ve dealt with VistaPrint for almost 20 years – the quality of the print is sometimes a little lower than expected, but their pricing can’t be beat when they have a promotion.
Just don’t get too fancy or detailed with any graphics, and the cards will turn out fine.
01/04/2019 at 4:18 pm in reply to: For Vintage Toy Geeks – Lookie what I found (To Use Retro's words) #54527Awesome find – vintage table hockey games are always an easy sell (well here in Canada they are – I’ve never seen a cheap one in the wild). Eagle ones are the best, but Coleco ones are also good. Even if it is destroyed, any salvageable parts go for decent money.
Brings back good memories! Probably one of my favorite toys of all time.
Great job! We’re just doing this today with our packing area – still trying to figure out where to put the bigger boxes. I’ll also share photos after the weekend of our packing and storage area revamp.
I’m going to steal and improve on one of your husband’s ideas (if I can figure it out) – I’m going to try and mount a T-square and a ruler to measure boxes quickly. Thought is to mount the T-square on the wall (like your measuring tape but also going up) and have a ruler coming out on the table to get all 3 dimensions.
For common boxes, I’m trying to give them each a name and pre-measure them, so I just need to have a weight when I pack and ship and keep a list of dimensions by the computer.
01/04/2019 at 1:39 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Empty tequila bottle, Turntable, Hat case, Cow Head Bell, Album holder, Magazine rack. #54507I find that just comparing previous sold prices doesn’t tell the whole story:
a) the shipping is adjusted to your location – for me, I get some whacky shipping rates to Canada that don’t give me the true total cost the item sold for. Something may have sold for $20, but shows $80 shipping, but may really have cost the buyer $25 total.
b) detailed descriptions, such as Sharyn points out with the book number can drive sales. People may be looking for something very specific in their search, and if you are the only one with the description that matches, they will miss the others. That is why I never copy other’s descriptions – always create your own version.
c) Location – as with the shipping example, location can get you higher sales. For myself, if I am the only one in Canada selling an item, I can ask for more then others selling the item Internationally to get a in-country sale.
d) Sketchy listings – a professional, unique listing always will get me to buy over someone with a stock photo and minimal information. I’m not going to pay double, but I will pay a small percentage (maybe 25% ish) for an item from someone trustworthy then a new seller that has a sketchy listing, no feedback, and may be in China. If I really want the item in time, I will pay for the reputation of the seller to come through with it and not risk it at all. This past Xmas I risked buying a gift for my wife from two sellers that were fake or didn’t come through because I tried to get a deal – the third purchase from someone with high feedback and reputation came through at a higher cost.
e) Vague listings – as a seller/buyer of electronics, you can spot a problem with the item just by the listing. If they can’t even plug it in to test it, then it probably doesn’t work. If someone has a listing with defects listed (scuffing, XYZ is broken, etc) I trust that those will be the only problems with the item. I’m not going to pay anything for an item someone couldn’t be bothered to test or may be incomplete.
Completed sales are a great guide, but always use your gut for pricing – if you have a good reputation, good items, good descriptions, and are honest, it will pay off with higher prices in the long run.
11. Go like crazy to the good garage sales
Does anyone find the best time to go to a garage sale is at the end of the sale? I’ve had good luck getting free or deep discounted stuff at the end of garage sales, where at the beginning of the sale, I’m fighting others for the deals, and the overpriced items stay high until the seller gets anxious.
The 30 mile radius expansion is worthwhile – I live 30 miles from any small city (very rural) and the few local estate sales/estate auctions are always poorly attended. If you go more in the rural direction, (instead of closer to a city) the better I find the prices and selection.
01/03/2019 at 10:18 am in reply to: Listing items you are completely not interested in listing #54441Maybe I’m the odd person here, but I’d gladly list anything that makes me money if I already own it and it isn’t a hassle to take photos and ship.
I don’t discriminate – if I already own it, and I can list it, I’ll try to sell it.
If it doesn’t sell, I take it to the donation center that gives me the best deal – right now, I’m getting $10 off of $25 for every box/bag I bring into my local Salvation Army.
@T-Satt – that was my thinking as well. Do all the photos and any information (dimensions/defects) at home, do the rest of the photo editing, and listing at work going forward during the 7+ hours of downtime I have almost everyday…I might as well take advantage of the situation while I’m able to.
01/02/2019 at 3:28 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 392: No Alarm Clocks – We chat with Troy aka T-Satt about the eBay Lifestyle #54398Enjoyed the podcast this week – it was very re-assuring that the path I’m taking isn’t unique, and that those who are where I want to go used the same philosophies and steps to get there. It was very comforting for me!
When T-Satt talked about his old corporate job, it gave me shivers. It’s the life I lived. Long days, and even out of the office people were constantly calling me all night and through family events/weekends/vacations for help. I can always go back to that world, but I’m much healthier mentally and physically getting out of it…Also enjoyed the part about looking for others who are doing the same thing and finding a community/partner to work with. I find that very important as I move forward to a full-time seller from part-time.
Good job guys, and great conversation!
Looking forward to 2019.
DECEMBER 2018
Had to change my avatar as this month has been good to us.
Our month was split in two distinct parts – on Friday, December 14th I received a call (from someone I never met who now is my “boss”) letting me know that I didn’t have to show up to work for 3 weeks…not the call I wanted, but will take 3 weeks of pay to stay home…
Instead of wasting the opportunity of free time with pay, we pounced on it. Our current home is purged. We are down to the basics we need, and moved everything else up to our new place. It also gave us a good pile of things to list. It was a huge amount of work, but now we have one less thing to think about in our future. Our new place is completely gutted of everything we didn’t want. It is cleaned out, cleaned up, and ready to live in.
We were able to do my annual purge – anything over 16 months without sales on eBay was removed, relisted, or put into larger lots. At the same time, I was able to re-organize my eBay storage to ramp-up for 2019. Typically, I have about 200-300 items up, our goal is to ramp up to 500+ in the next few months.
Our upcoming challenges are going to be interesting:
Building Inventory – obviously, to increase our profit we need to invest in more items/capital. For us, the challenge isn’t finding inventory, it is how much we can afford, and how much time we have at the moment to list.
Time – I will have to return to sitting in a dark, empty warehouse from 9-5 every weekday next week. We’ll continue to scavenge Saturday, list Sunday, but may need to mix things up during the week or the odd Saturday to get items listed, or change how we scavenge (do we spend every second Saturday scavenging 9-9, then list during our free time at our leisure?). Do I exploit my unique work situation (I’m alone, with internet access)…
“Project Trigger” – this is our code for when I finally get released from my job – it is the day we have to pull the trigger on getting rid of our current home, moving the rest of our stuff, and planning our financial future with the proceeds from our house sale. This could happen any day – or drag on for months, maybe a year? I’m not sure how long I’m going to get paid to sit around in a huge warehouse alone, but the new corporate owners don’t seem to care to communicate with me much, and I’m pretty much left alone.
Other ideas for income – we have skills, hobbies that we can make money off of, and other interests or ideas outside of eBay – however, we are moving to a completely different community. What will work, and what won’t work? We’ll have to explore this as other options for income are something we’re both open to exploring and exploiting if they interest us.
January is going to be focused on building up our eBay business – scavenging and listing will be the focus for the next couple months. The ultimate goal (if possible) would be to have a good portion of our income post-job coming in while still employed, and therefore the transition will be very easy. Will update everyone in a month how far we got with building up our listings/sales.
I’ve sold a lot of old software, and have never had an issue. Like Retro says, just hide the key number or it will be all over the internet…
Being from 2007, I don’t think any buyer will have an issue with re-using the license key. Some newer software (post 2010 or newer) will be an issue, but you can sell those “as is” and keys can be purchased separately.
Older software is more of a collector thing anyways – for the price of shipping, an individual can get the latest Publisher version online from MS for what they need.
12/21/2018 at 10:46 am in reply to: Ebay not counting Dec 5th as Postal Holiday in Late Tracking Uploaded Metric #53835eBay pulled off all the late tracking/shipping information for me during the month long postal strike and subsequent backlog in Canada. It took a few weeks but they did remove it as they promised.
Sally – the house looks great – the photos are REALLY good and inviting.
We have a gloomy winter where we live as well – it’s the best time to focus on scavenging and the days that are horrible, bundle up and take photos and list. Our most successful months are March and April for sales. So take advantage of the poor weather and build up a stockpile for when spring comes around and you want to focus on other things.
We also have been hovering around the 200 listings / $1000 month profit for some time – however, just think what you could do with 400 listings? or push to 500? You’ll get there. We’ve been there – it takes a lot of work and dedication, but you will get double the results with double the listings.
Good luck in 2019! Have a good holiday!
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